"Imagine spending 4 weeks in the wilderness surrounded by people your age from all over the world, learning about global issues, making life-long friendships, and making connections in a world without a screen. You do all that and more at Camp Rising Sun!" -- Aiyla Baker, 11th grade
Imagine spending 4 weeks in the wilderness surrounded by people your age from all over the world, learning about global issues, making life-long friendships, and making connections in a world without a screen. You do all that and more at Camp Rising Sun! Camp Rising Sun is a month-long international leadership program in Rhinebeck, New York. The experience takes place at the campus in Clinton and there are two sessions every year with 50-60 campers each aged 14-16. People from all over the world go to CRS, and the 2023 season saw campers from 36 countries.
There are times during each day when all the campers are together, and other times when they’re separated. Everyone is together in meals, assemblies, and evening programs but split up for projects and instructions. Instructions are daily camper or counselor-led lessons, which range from baking to kayaking, often in groups of 7 to 15. However, they can sometimes include the entire group. Each day, there’s around 3 hours of Self-Structured Time (SST) where each camper can choose what they want to do, whether it’s playing sports or talking with other campers. Projects are daily activities that are times where campers can work on one of the many projects around camp. During the 2023 girls and non-binary session, two murals were completed during projects time and a dock was also built.
There are many accommodations at the camp, which include tents and lean-tos where campers keep their things and sleep along with 3-4 other campers. Campers switch tents every 2 weeks and the people in their tents are the people they stand with during assemblies. There are also two bathrooms with stalls, one in tent hill and the other is in the main building. The main building consists of multiple connected buildings and is where meals take place. Meals happen in the dining hall, and there are 3 meals a day that are cooked by kitchen staff. Camp also has a Health and Wellness Center (HAWC), which serves as a place for campers to go for any health needs. Every session also has a handful of second-year campers who serve as mentors for the first-year campers.
Camp Rising Sun also gives a lot of leadership opportunities to campers. Every week there are different leaders of the week who lead everything from teamworks to organizing and leading variety shows. Every day there’s a different leader of the day, or LOD, who is responsible for making sure everything goes smoothly on their LOD day. They lead assemblies, create a plan for the day, and they communicate directly with counselors through walkie-talkies. On top of leading, campers have other responsibilities they are expected to complete. Every day after breakfast, campers participate in teamworks. Teamworks are times where people clean up and take care of the Camp Rising Sun campus. Each has around 6-8 people, and responsibilities include cleaning the bathrooms, and washing the dishes. Campers are expected to lead these teamworks, with two leaders for each teamwork every week.
To attend Camp Rising Sun, you have to fill out an application, which open in late Fall-early Winter. The process is lengthy, and there’s a mix of questions you have to answer. Some ask for short answers, others ask for longer answers. Once you finish the basic questions about you, you have to complete a project. The project is in a form of your choice, and there are a few options including writing an essay or filming a video. There are multiple prompts you can choose to answer. To finish the application, you need a letter of recommendation from a teacher. After the applications close, there are interviews led by alumni and directors of the camp. Interviews usually happen around February, and acceptance decisions are released at the end of February.
Camp gives people dozens of new experiences and hundreds of life-long memories. For many, camp is their first experience living away from home for an extended period of time. Campers also gain a lot, including connections to people from all over the world and scholarship opportunities. The organization responsible for Camp Rising Sun offers scholarships that are exclusive to alumni. This includes the George E. Jonas (GEJ) Scholarship, which offers money that goes towards school expenses to CRS alumni currently attending college in the United States, counts OSA alum Tai-Ge Min (a camp attendee in 2021 and 2022) among its winners.
In response to winning the scholarship, they said “I’m incredibly proud and grateful to be a member of the CRS community.” Other notable alumni from the school are graduate Sarah Schecter and current students Karol Sanchez and Mahaya Ramirez.
When asked about the impact of CRS, Sarah Schecter said “I think that meeting people from other cultures can cement a person's sense of self in the world. There's an amazing feeling of warmth and connection that comes from celebrating the things we share across cultures.”
This touches on both the short-term and lifelong impact that Camp Rising Sun has on a person; exposure to people from so many different cultures at such a young age can completely change how you look at the world. Making connections with people who come from such drastically different backgrounds but are very similar to you can also make a big difference. It can help you become more social, become more affected by world events and overall grow your connection to the world.
There are times during each day when all the campers are together, and other times when they’re separated. Everyone is together in meals, assemblies, and evening programs but split up for projects and instructions. Instructions are daily camper or counselor-led lessons, which range from baking to kayaking, often in groups of 7 to 15. However, they can sometimes include the entire group. Each day, there’s around 3 hours of Self-Structured Time (SST) where each camper can choose what they want to do, whether it’s playing sports or talking with other campers. Projects are daily activities that are times where campers can work on one of the many projects around camp. During the 2023 girls and non-binary session, two murals were completed during projects time and a dock was also built.
There are many accommodations at the camp, which include tents and lean-tos where campers keep their things and sleep along with 3-4 other campers. Campers switch tents every 2 weeks and the people in their tents are the people they stand with during assemblies. There are also two bathrooms with stalls, one in tent hill and the other is in the main building. The main building consists of multiple connected buildings and is where meals take place. Meals happen in the dining hall, and there are 3 meals a day that are cooked by kitchen staff. Camp also has a Health and Wellness Center (HAWC), which serves as a place for campers to go for any health needs. Every session also has a handful of second-year campers who serve as mentors for the first-year campers.
Camp Rising Sun also gives a lot of leadership opportunities to campers. Every week there are different leaders of the week who lead everything from teamworks to organizing and leading variety shows. Every day there’s a different leader of the day, or LOD, who is responsible for making sure everything goes smoothly on their LOD day. They lead assemblies, create a plan for the day, and they communicate directly with counselors through walkie-talkies. On top of leading, campers have other responsibilities they are expected to complete. Every day after breakfast, campers participate in teamworks. Teamworks are times where people clean up and take care of the Camp Rising Sun campus. Each has around 6-8 people, and responsibilities include cleaning the bathrooms, and washing the dishes. Campers are expected to lead these teamworks, with two leaders for each teamwork every week.
To attend Camp Rising Sun, you have to fill out an application, which open in late Fall-early Winter. The process is lengthy, and there’s a mix of questions you have to answer. Some ask for short answers, others ask for longer answers. Once you finish the basic questions about you, you have to complete a project. The project is in a form of your choice, and there are a few options including writing an essay or filming a video. There are multiple prompts you can choose to answer. To finish the application, you need a letter of recommendation from a teacher. After the applications close, there are interviews led by alumni and directors of the camp. Interviews usually happen around February, and acceptance decisions are released at the end of February.
Camp gives people dozens of new experiences and hundreds of life-long memories. For many, camp is their first experience living away from home for an extended period of time. Campers also gain a lot, including connections to people from all over the world and scholarship opportunities. The organization responsible for Camp Rising Sun offers scholarships that are exclusive to alumni. This includes the George E. Jonas (GEJ) Scholarship, which offers money that goes towards school expenses to CRS alumni currently attending college in the United States, counts OSA alum Tai-Ge Min (a camp attendee in 2021 and 2022) among its winners.
In response to winning the scholarship, they said “I’m incredibly proud and grateful to be a member of the CRS community.” Other notable alumni from the school are graduate Sarah Schecter and current students Karol Sanchez and Mahaya Ramirez.
When asked about the impact of CRS, Sarah Schecter said “I think that meeting people from other cultures can cement a person's sense of self in the world. There's an amazing feeling of warmth and connection that comes from celebrating the things we share across cultures.”
This touches on both the short-term and lifelong impact that Camp Rising Sun has on a person; exposure to people from so many different cultures at such a young age can completely change how you look at the world. Making connections with people who come from such drastically different backgrounds but are very similar to you can also make a big difference. It can help you become more social, become more affected by world events and overall grow your connection to the world.